Tesla breaks ground for Gigafactory outside Reno

Reno, Nevada may have just won one of the most coveted economic prizes in America — Tesla Motors’ $5 billion “Gigafactory.”

A Tesla Model S under construction at the company’s Fremont factory. Photo: The Chronicle

The electric automaker reported Thursday that it had broken ground in June at a site outside Reno for its planned 6,500-employee battery factory.

Five states, including California, have been vying for months to host the factory. Reno had been considered a logical choice ever since Tesla executives were spotted scouting sites around the city, which has easy rail and freeway access to the company’s Palo Alto headquarters and Fremont auto plant.

But Tesla said Thursday that it had not made a final decision on Reno, or any of the other locations under consideration. The company needs to be able to build the plant quickly so it can supply batteries for Tesla’s upcoming Model 3 sedan, due to hit the market in 2016 or 2017.

A statement on the company’s website Thursday said:

In June, we broke ground just outside Reno, Nevada on a site that could potentially be the location for the Gigafactory. Consistent with our strategy to identify and break ground on multiple sites, we continue to evaluate other locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The final site for the first Gigafactory will be determined in the next few

months, once we have full visibility and agreement on the relevant incentives and processes for enabling the Gigafactory to be fully operational to meet the timing for Model 3